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Good Will Hunting
Another day, another country. How many was it now? She looked in her journal, hoping for a clue. The woman found none; she did see copious notes on various folklore though. It still amazed her just how many creatures this vast world held; and all the painstaking detail going into describing them. Cyn should know; she was doing it right now. From what she had gathered so far, the entities encountered today seemed...nymph-like. Maybe a bit of mermaid too? That didn't seem quite right either. The woman settled on Lady of the Lake; though there were a few of them. From what she glimpsed they were breathtakingly beautiful, yet painfully shy. As soon as they were aware of her, the trio disappeared into the depths. The woman had waited around for hours in hope they were reappear, but she didn't catch a ripple. Hence, Cynisca trudged on through the terrain, ending up at her current spot. Looking up, she saw the stars appearing. It reminded her that already a week had passed since she touched down on this nation's soil. Cynisca had sailed here on a journeyer's whim after about the nation's existence from people in the Western Continent. So far, it hadn't disappointed, yet being here reminded her how far away from home she was. Maybe she would write something to her kin tomorrow; Timesa always liked to see where Cyn had been after all. She yawned, stretching as the moon gradually came into view. Yes, that's what she'd do tomorrow; send a letter/postcard to her kin and see if she could coax those lake ladies to the surface. Propping up her bazooka against a tree, Cynisca pulled out a sleeping bag. Unrolling it, she could already feel her eyes closing. With a sigh, the woman lay on top, moving it so her propped up weapon would be within easy reach. As soon as her head hit the sleeping bag's surface, she was out, snoring gently. From afar, a set of binoculars poked through the underbrush, spying Cynisca just as she began to drift off. “Captain…?” The man behind the binoculars whispered. He waited a moment, but no response came. “Captain Andrews?” He spoke a little louder. “We have a situation.” Just behind him, a small contingent of Rune knights readied themselves for an approaching battle. One of them, a black-haired woman with soft red eyes, turned away from the others and approached. Crouching down next to him, her red eyes cast a gaze up the side of the valley. “What is it?” "I think that sniper just fell asleep on the job.” He muttered, handing her the binoculars so she could see for herself. “Guess she didn’t expect to see anyone tonight.” Looking though the glass, Hanna found the woman asleep on the ground, her long, overlarge rifle resting against a tree not too far away. A small smirk formed on her face, and she passed the binoculars back to the scout. “Lucky us then.” Pressing the small communications lacrima in the collar of her jacket closer to his mouth, she began to relay orders. “This is Captain Andrews, all forces prepare to engage on my lead.” Slowly standing up, the Captain looking back to find the faces of her subordinates all waiting for the order. She drew her sword and pointed the tip at the ground, where a string of runes began spreading out before them. “'Dark Écriture: Silence'.” A dull purple glow lit up the way before them, ad with one final nod to her solders, she charged through the bushes. Her footfalls made no sound however, even as dead leaves and branches broke under her feet. Nor did any of the other solders who passed over her runes. The Captain kept her eye on the woman as she approached, but only until she passed her. Even if her spell hadn’t masked her presence, the three knights surrounding her would deal with her in short order. Farther up the valley, a stone building came into view. A little haphazardly constructed, sturdy enough to form a reasonable defense should someone have the knowledge of an impending raid. Not that she was willing to give them that option. The plan was a blitz strategy, catch them off guard with an overwhelming force, then force a surrender. With that though, she’d need something flashy, and she’d already discussed that with her partner while they where planning this raid. As she drew close to the door, a pair of large, silver suits of knight’s armor jumped into existence on either side of her, large golden swords at the ready. In one fluid motion, the pair of them carved a large X mark into the front of the structure, shattering the door and much of the wall around it. From the debris, the Captain burst into a large round room full of surprised characters. “I’m Hanna Andrews of the Magic Council, you’re all under arrest!” Before the shock could wait off, eight more suits of armor popped up around her in a phalanx formation. Smaller than the last two, standing only three feet tall, but armed with small round shields and spears. Despite this, a number of individuals all dove for cover. Many popped back up a second later with weapons, improvised or otherwise, and some in the midst of casting spells. As the battle kicked off, a short, scrawny man peered out of one of the back rooms, hastily shutting the door ad the violence ensued. He hastily returned to a large desk in the center of the room, cursing under his breath the entire way. He scooped as many papers off the table as he could carry on one armful, then waddled over towards a large open furnace in the corner of the room. He returned for a second, but tripped when the building began to rumble. He crawled over to the desk once more, and ripped a whole drawer out and threw it to the fire next. Just as he returned to make a third grab, the door he’d locked burst open, and a familiar visage loomed in the light of the next room. “Shit!” The man cursed, grabbing a small ledger off the desk and pulling a pistol out of his waistband. He blindly threw the ledger towards the furnace, then opened fire on the figure. She, in turn, threw her sword at the furnace, knocking the lid closed to just catch the ledger before it was fully consumed by fire, then dodge rolled to the side to avoid the oncoming bullets. She rose again, pulling her scabbard from her belt and using it to strike the back of the man’s shooting hand before he could fire again. He cursed again, moments before the Captain cracked the end of her scabbard down on the top of the man’s head. He dropped with a soft grunt, unconscious before he even hit the ground. Hanna quickly turned back to the doorway, still on guard, but found a pair of rune knights looking back at her. One of them gave her the OK sign with his fingers, and the Captain smiled. “HQ, this is Captain Andrews.” She spoke into her communicator again. “Mission successful. You are clear to land the Ramora.” ---- After about twenty minutes, the valley had become an internment camp. A large airship, barely small enough to fit between the valley walls, sat as it’s center. Solders led dark mages and criminals away, while investigators poured over everything they could find and making a log of it all. Back at the hideout, the scrawny man sat handcuffed to a chair, where the Captain was personally interrogating him. “What was so important that you felt the need to burn?” She demanded, clutching the half-incinerated ledger in her hand. “You didn’t fight back, you prioritized destroying this. If you tell me why, I might be able to grant you some leeway.” The man only scoffed at her attempts to reason. “I panicked, what can I say? Logging is a cutthroat business, after all.” He spat a wad of blood out at her feet, returning a bloodied smile. “Some crazy broad attacked me and my cohorts. I thought you where goin’ to kill me.” Despite the defiance, Hanna smirked to herself. “Loggers, you say?” She folded her arm under her chest, absentmindedly flipping through the ledgers remaining pages. “Strange, it says here that you’re guarding a weapons cache for Crooked Cross.” The man’s eyebrow twitched, and a cold sweat began running down the back of his neck. “B-bullshit! Only think you’ll find there are surveys and-.” “Hey, Hanna!” A voice shouted from the other room. “W think we hit the jackpot here.” Hanna grumbled, turning just in time to see a man with dark hair tired up in a braid appeared in the doorway. “Captain… Florz” She grunted through gritted teeth. “When we’re at work, call me captain.” Rune knight snickered, but bowed respectfully. “Sorry, sorry, Captain. But we hit the jackpot here.” From behind him, he tossed a lacrima into the air and caught it like a softball, grinning like a dog that had just retrieved a ball. “Think this is what we’re looking for?” Her red eyes winded slightly. Bomb Lacrima, a fairly large bomb lacrima at that. “How many?” “Found about four in the first bag. Including this one.” He shrugged, carefully tucking the stone under his arm and peering back out into the main room. “The others have pulled about four more bags out from under the floorboards.” The two mages slowly turned to look at the other man, who was really beginning to sweat now. “I want a Lawyer…” He growled. “Officer, take this one to the airship.” Hanna ordered to the men standing guard. As one knight led the man away the other retrieved the bomb lacrima from Florz. He, however, could sense something was wrong with his partner, judging by the slight scowl on her face. “So… What’s wrong?” She ignored him, continuing to stair at the ledger like she hadn’t even heard what he’d said. “What is it?” He asked a little more concerned. “What does it say?” “Nothing…” She huffed, dropping her shoulders and showing it to him. The pages where all gone, either burned away or charred beyond recognition. “I was to late; he destroyed any evidence that might lead us to another hideout.” Florz took the ledger to inspect for himself, but it practically crumbled in his hands as he turned the page. “So… that bit about you finding something in here…” “I bluffed…” She said with a heavy sigh. “I remembered hearing something about weapons in the briefing… So I thought…” She trailed off, but Florz understood. “Damn… Well… Still, we’ve got this place.” He said hopefully, tossing the useless ledger aside. “Let’s not forget, they had a hell of an arsenal here. I’m no expert, but the eggheads here said that just one of those bombs could take out an entire building.” Hanna appeared no better, which got on Florz’ nerves a little. “C’mon, give yourself some credit. We did a good job here. Focus on that.” Patting her cheeks, Hanna finally looked up at him and put on a weak smile. As the two of them strolled out into the early morning sunlight and admired the scene before her. As far as she could tell, none of her troupes had been injured. Despite their initial show of bravado, most of the dark mages had surrendered without a fight. “OK… I suppose your right.” “Captain!?” One of the troops called to her, drawing her attention farther down the valley to where they’d made their initial charge. Approaching them was one of the Rune knights, who stood at attention once he was close enough to address them without shouting. “Captain Andrews, one of the scouts here would like to speak with you.” The two exchanged a glance, then Hanna said. “I thought I ordered the scouts to maintain a perimeter?” “Not one of ours, Captain.” The knight shook his head. “One of the dark mages claims she’s not affiliated with any of this.” “Yeah, of course they would.” Florz huffed, crossing his arms in irritation. “How green are you, solder? Pretty much everyone we brought in tonight is going to tell you something like that. You know that, don’t you?” Raising a hand to stop her partners berating, Hanna slowly approached and motioned for him to be at ease. “Can’t you deal with this without me?” The Rune knight remained silent, but Hanna had a gut feeling that this was something she’d have to deal with personally. “OK… Take me to them.” ---- It was a pretty damn rude awakening she had. Roused and handcuffed while half-asleep? Where was her bazooka? Then a bunch of guys running around in metal skirts hammering her with questions; through the fog her sleepy state, Cynisca noticed their uniforms were somewhat familiar. It then clicked: Rune Knights. Why did she have to run into Rune Knights at this hour? She was just trying to sleep. Had Cyn been on her home continent, she wouldn't have worried about a thing; she was smart and resourceful with allies everywhere. Here though, was a different story. Sure, she could break out these cuffs in seconds; she wasn't some snot-nosed brat. Hell, she could lay low any of these Rune Knights in the time it took to eat breakfast. But, the woman was on foreign terrain; she didn't know this land nearly as well as Ishgar. Which meant she could go from a bunch of MC cronies grilling her to a bunch of dark mages grilling her. "How many times do I have to tell you that I have no frigging clue what you're talking about? You're dropping names I don't know and places I've never seen. So how about you get it through your thick skull that I'm not a part of this?" Cyn spat, her mood worsening from a lack of sustenance. "Or are you those bad cops that like forcing false confessions from innocent people? Cause I can tell you where to shove it if that's the case." Hanna and Florz could hear this ranting even from outside the prison area that'd set up, and the two exchanged a nervous glance. "Uhg... I can't deal with this..." Hanna moaned, running a hand through her long, black hair. "I just want to sleep in my own bed for once... Is that too much to ask?" Despite the continued ranting, Florz glanced at his partner. "Then let's just go back." He shrugged, his eyes turning towards the large airship in the center of their encampment. "We have investigates to deal with this kind of thing. If she wants to proclaim her innocance, let her do it to them. Our job is done here." Letting out a long sigh, Hanna considered it for a moment. Florz was right, they'd done their job. Yet at the same time, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little off. "It wouldn't have been the first time someone tried to claim innocence in the face of overwhelming evidence, but she was quickly becoming one of the more outspoken. Compared to the rest of the people they'd arrested that night, who remained silent the second they realized the fight was lost, She was practically becoming a one woman protest. "Just..." She muttered, remembering a time when her superior had berated her for allowing herself to become overly personal with her cases. "Let's just hear her out, OK?" Florz rolled his eyes, but didn't argue further. Patting her cheeks to wake herself up a little, Hanna strolled around the privacy curtain that enclosed the area where they where holding detainees. A large circle of runes acted as a cage, trapping everyone they'd arrested within a sturdy magic barrier. One among them was a silver haired woman, glaring out at any Council Member present, and turned this glare to Hanna when she approached. "I've... Been told you want to talk to the one in charge?" Cynisca stared at the new arrivals. A woman and a man, both dark-haired. The woman appeared a bit tired, even after the attempt to rouse her consciousness. "Yes, I fucking do. Who just goes and arrests someone minding their own fucking business? I was having a nice dream too. Like...couldn't you see the sleeping bag and the fact I was curled up? I don't know about you, but your subordinates need retraining if they can't separate bystander from foe," she snapped, her mood still worsening as her stomach rumbled loudly. "Also, where is my baby?" she saw confusion flash across their expressions, "My bazooka nincompoops. I had it leaning against a tree, minding its own business and now it's not with me. Who confiscated it?" "Mindin' your own bushiness, huh?" Florz snorted, crossing his arms. "And I suppose the four other guys we found guarding the place where minding their own business too?" Hanna raised a hand once again to silence her partner, allowing herself the chance to speak. "So... You say you where just camping? Thirty feet from a dark guild weapons cache?" She shook her head and hung her hands on her hips. "You've got to know how that sounds to us, right?" "How the hell was I suppose to know a dark guild was there? I've only been in this country for a week. So unless you're handing out pamphlets to every tourist telling them where all dark guilds are, I wouldn't know. Besides, dark guilds love hiding their locations dumbass. So maybe, just maybe that pea sized brain of yours can understand why I had no idea it was there," Cyn snarled, a dense aura of ethernano rising from her person. The barrier cracked. She let out a frustrated breath, trying to find her calm. "Look. I don't know what I don't know and that dark guild you people just raided is one thing I had no idea existed. If you can't believe that I have nothing else to tell you." The moment her barrier began to fail, Hanna's hand slowly drifted to her hip where her sword rested. "Someone get some seal-stone in here." Florz barked, shooing two of the other guards away. He then stepped up next to Hanna, putting his back to the detainees to mask what he was saying. "This is a waste of time." Rather than heed his advice however, Hanna took a small step closer to the barrier. "Ma'am, I promise I'll look into this for you, but you need to calm down first." She felt more awake now, seeing the power the woman possessed. Her eyes slowly drifted around the room, to the trio of guards who had now also been put on high alert, and the two more who had just returned with a pair of seal-stone cuffs. "I won't feel safe leaving my men here with you if you're going to lash out, understood?" "It's difficult to be calm when you were tossed from your bed, imprisoned on false accusations, and have now missed breakfast," Cyn retorted before dialing it back a bit. "Why would I lash out? That's counterproductive and takes too long. I just want my bazooka and I'll be on my way," She continued before grumbling, "I knew I should've booked a hotel room...this is what I get for wanting to sleep under the stars." She sat down. "Also, what do you mean by look into it?" One of the Rune Knights approached with the seal-stone, but Hanna rose her arm to block them. Sensing a change in Cyn's mood, she put on a small smile and did her best to sound compassionate in her sleep addled state. "You mentioned only being in the country for a week. That should be easy enough for us to confirm, so long as you came here legally." She knew she couldn't have sounded that convincing, based on how heavy her eyelids had become, but at the least she hoped she hadn't come across as condescending. The last thing she wanted was to escalate things again. "After that, I can have someone look into tracking down your belongings, OK?" Cyn stared at the seal-stone warily. "And how long would that 'confirmation' take?" Truth be told, she had just hopped on boat from the western continent heading to the island country's main port. Did they have an immigration or tourist visa policy? "Legally? What is this, checkpoint time? I knew I should've stayed my ass in Alakitacia." "If I get the call out right away, we should hear back within the hour." She glancing back at FLorz, who nodded begrudgingly and began talking with one of the other Rune Knights. "In the mean time..." Hanna continued. "I'll ask you to just be patient with us. And... maybe I could find you something to eat too, Deal?" "As long as it's not dripping with a poison agent or some sleep crap, sure," Cyn commented, still unamused. She stood up and began pacing the space. Why was she even complying with this? She already had a renegade reputation elsewhere; most Rune Knight jurisdictions avoided her on sight for her known flamboyance. Cyn just considered it being friendly though. "Why are you guys even after that dark guild anyway? It had to be something special if they brought these kind of numbers. Don't you have an elite strike force to take care of jobs like this?" "Aww, c'mon." One of the other detainees shouted with a sly grin. "You knew what we where about when you signed up, didn't ya?" His gaze quickly shifted to the council mages, his grin growing larger. "Why's she gettin' special treatment. I didn't have anything to do with this either." "Yeah, what the hell?" One of the other inmates shouted. FLorz spun back around, and all the knights took a defensive stance as the detainees began to complain. "Pipe down, all of you." His order went ignored so he quickly changed tactics. With a snap of his fingers, the eight tiny spear-man from the raid reappeared in a flash, encircling the barrier. "I said pipe down!" The inmates grew quiet as the knights closed in, but it gave Hanna an idea. "Maybe..." She muttered, loosening her grip on her sword. "We should find somewhere else to have this conversation..." ---- "-An-a?" Hanna stirred, feeling someone rock her shoulder. "Hanna, wake up." She sat upright in a haze, slowly stretching her arms out over he head with a long groan, and thought back ot the last thing she could remember. After separating Cyn from the other detainees, they let her to the brig on their airship, hoping that it'd be a bit more comfortable than just sitting on the ground. They'd also scrounged up something for her to eat as well, as her stomach had began growling part way through their trek. Afterwords, they'd sent an inquiry out to the boarder patrol, hoping to end this matter quickly. The last thing she could remember after that was laying her head down on a desk in one of the airship's cabins. She must've nodded off at some point, as a quick glance at the clock on the wall told her that almost an hour had passed. Stretching out her back, Hanna turned around in the chair and looked up at FLorz, finding him with a worried expression on his face. 'Yeah?" She half muttered, rubbing the sleep form her eyes. "What is it?" Seeing her become more coherent with each passing second, FLorz' expression softened slightly. "Report just came in." He said, handing her a folded paper from his back pocket. "Her story checks out." Hanna took the paper, quickly skimming through it to confirm for herself. There it was. A photo of Cyn, next to an entry date exactly one week from today. Despite the inconvenience, they had caused her, a smile found it's way onto Hanna's face. Her gut had let her right once again. "Good." "You sure about that?" Florz shrugged, leaning on the door-frame of the cabin. "She could be a mercenary. That was a hell of a stash we found there, it'd be worth defending." "Maybe..." Hanna nodded, slowly rising to her feet and looking out the cabin window. "But... You where a scout once, would you have set up so close to what you where suppose to be guarding?" She looked back at him with a smile, holding her elbow behind her back. Taking a second to think, FLors crossed his arms and shrugged. "If it where me... A boxed in valley like this, trees everywhere... I'd pick somewhere high up. Especially with that cannon she's been lugging around." A grimace formed in his face as soon as he realized is fault in logic. "But... Staying on the ground, surrounded by trees that cut off your vision in pretty much every direction... She's either the worst sniper in the world..." He let out a defeated huff. "Or... She's telling the truth." Hanna's tird smile grew. It was these little moments, these simple, logical moments that made her fall in love with her job. Helping people was just a bonus, but these A-ha moments where what she really loved what she did. It was also why she and Florz got along so wall, through some of his stubbornness, he really was a good investigator. "We owe her an apology." Florz nodded again, massaging the back of his neck. Sensing her partners discomfort, Hanna tilted her head slightly and said. "Why don't you go see if anyone's fond her stuff. I'll go talk to her myself, OK?" As she exited the cabin, Florz patted her on the back as she passed him by. "You are way to soft." He chuckled. She shot him a quick jab to the side before the two parted ways. Making her way through the airship, Hanna quickly found her way to the brig, where Cyn was waiting not so patiently for her. Spying tehe empty plate on the cell's small end-table, Hanna unlocked the door and approached with the keys to her handcuffs in hand. "So your story checked out." She said quickly, trying to look as apologetic as her tired eyes would let her. "I'm really sorry about what happened." Cyn continued pacing back and forth. What else was there to do? Her plate was empty, she still didn't have her bazooka, and now she was even further away from the lake she saw yesterday. Plus with all this noise and ruckus, she doubted any of Lady of the Lake would make an appearance. She snorted, frustrated as she continued wearing a trail into the floor. Her head would snap up upon hearing the sound of the cell's door unlocking. Sure enough it was a tired, seemingly apologetic Hanna, approaching with keys in hand. Cyn snorted again, waving the keys away. "No need." She snapped the chain holding the cuffs together by pulling her arms away from each other before breaking each hand cuff with two fingers. The severed halves and chain fell to the ground with a thunk. Cynisca rubbed her wrists. "That's nice. Now, where is my bazooka?" she asked, her mood improving slightly. Her murky gold gaze sharpened as Cyn took in the rest of the brig. Hanna bit her lip, tucking the keys into her back pocket. "M-my partner is tracking it down for you." She straightened herself up, backing out of the cell to allow Cyn to leave. "But... You had some questions..." She added, slowly leaning against the hull. "We might as well talk, right?" "And you sound nervous. Where did the stutter come from?" Cyn commented, raising an eyebrow. "Questions? Yeah, I have a ton of those. For example, what was so valuable that you invaded a dark guild? I've seen disciplinary forces before, but yours was pretty damn large. Secondly, why are you so tired? You were fighting back yawns the entire time. Isn't that brooding partner of yours supposed to help you?" Hanna flattened against the wall a little, taken aback by the barrage of questions that had been lobbed at her. Cyn, apparently, was a bit of a motormouth. "Well, Florz and I are partners, but I'm acting commander, so I outrank him. He helps a lot, but... There's a lot to do, and it's my job anyways." She trailed off, averting her gaze. "And... We've been planning this raid for the past few weeks, and I've been so worried that something would go wrong that... I don't think I've had a full nights sleep in a while..." Cyn noticed this too, shaking her head a bit. "So you outrank him eh.. Nice to see a woman giving the commands instead of the other way around." She commented before noticing the averted gaze. Was something else there? Instead of pursuing that further, she grinned. "So what you're saying is, you're a worrywart. Not a good look. What's your name anyway? Now that I'm no longer stuck in bureaucratic bullshit, we should probably exchange them." With that, she went. "Name's Cynisca Soga. Though you probably know that already with the background check." The woman stuck out her tongue. Covering her mouth to mask a small chuckle, Hanna stood up straight to introduce herself. "Hanna Andrews, Commander of the Central ops division, and Captain of the Rune Knights. The other guy you met is Florz Grappen. He's a Captain too, but he's more of a solder than anything else." She smiled meekly, scratching the back of her head. "As for being a worrywart... I get that a lot. There's a lot of pressure sometimes." She shook her head. "Where is your attitude girl? Enough of the meek looks, stand up straight. At least look like you can whoop some serious ass. You're a commander, a captain," Cyn chastised teasingly, wagging a finger. Cynisca turned serious. "You still haven't told me why you attacked that dark guild." Straightening up a little, Hanna shook her head in an attempt to wake herself up a little more. "S-sorry." Realizing that kind of response was exactly what Cyn was talking about, she quickly moved on. "This outpost belongs to a dark guild named Crooked Cross, they're... I guess they're a bunch of anarchists who hate the Magic Council. They want to displace us, and like to point to out failures whenever they try recruiting people." A grimace formed on her face, and she glanced out the porthole towards the small ruin they'd used as a staging area. "And... They're not afraid of hurting civilians to get what they want..." "Hmm..interesting. Harming civilians is a bit much I agree; you have to draw the line somewhere. However, I agree the Magic Council can be overbearing and negligent at the same time. How I don't know, it's like a special skill of theirs. There was chronic slave trade and human trafficking problem back on my home continent. No disrespect to your MC but ours did diddly squat. You know who dealt with the slave trade and sins of the Magic Council? People they branded terrorists; people that were revolutionaries; the very civilians that the MC was supposed to be protecting. Trust in the Magic Council is at an ebb in Ishgar," Cyn said, not meaning to go into such a long speech. "Sorry about the rant there; I just find the Magic Council annoying with their inaction sometimes. You guys are competent though, and actually care which is nice to see. Though you need to sleep more if you're going to be sharp," Cynisca added, her tone teasing at the end. "Yeah, I could use a nap right about now..." Hanna huffed, stretching her back out again. "But... We do out best. Bantia's not that big a country, but there're a lot of places someone could hide. So we have to take every threat seriously." She smiled slightly, tilting her head to the side. "It's nice to hear someone say we do a good job though. So, thanks." Before either of them could continued the conversation, the sound of footsteps rapidly approached from the stairwell. Florz stuck his head around the corner a moment later, Cyn's over-sized rifle hanging from his shoulder. "Hanna?" He spoke with a determined look on his face. "You gotta' see this." Puzzled, Hanna leaned over slightly to get a better look at him. "What is it?" "I need ya in the command room." Without elaborating, he then vanished up the stares again, shouting. "We found something else!" Hanna quickly glanced at Cyn, but the women said nothing ot eachother before following after Hanna's partner. Rapidly ascending through the airship soon brought them to the central command room. The walls where lined with magic displays, each being attended to by another Council mage. The head of the room was a large window, providing a view of the staging area. in the center was another magic display, projecting an overview of the terrain around the airship. As Hanna entered, every person not occupied with a display stood at attention. She waved for them ll to bee at ease, then approached Florz and another council mage standing near the center display. "Tell the commander what you just told me." Florz ordered, Cyn's riffle still hanging off his back. The young man approached, holding out a small ledger for her to examine. "We continued pulling up floorboards, trying to ensure we hadn't missed any weapons, and found a second compartment near the back of the property." He reported. "No weapons this time, but we did find a couple communication Lacrimas, a fair bit of money and other precious items, and this." He said, gesturing to the ledger. Looking up briefly, Hannas's eyes flashed. "Any teleportation lacrims?" Despite sounding hopeful, the attendant shook his head. "No... Apparently, other than the weapon stash, Crooked Cross preferred to distance themselves from this little group." Hanna let out a small huff. She knew it'd never be that easy, but couldn't help but get her hopes up. She returned to the ledger, seeking some kind of hint as to what they'd found. Most of the scribbling's where about money; who payed who, how much, whey it was paid. Some of the names had been crossed out in different colored ink, often with the words, Moved on, or broke written over top. Flipping back a page, Hanna found the words, Protection payments written at the top. "They're thugs..." Hanna shrugged, flipping the book over. This realization put a bit of a dampener on her mood. "Why is this important?" Cyn honed in on her beloved bazooka hanging off Florz. While she had managed to listen politely to all of the information being disseminated, her gaze remained on the weapon. She coughed lightly. "Um...Can I have my baby back? I've been a good little inmate," Cynisca requested, her tone turned teasing at the end. While waiting for its return, she decided to add her two cents. "Isn't obvious? Those protection payments have names attached. Connections, alias, epithets; you use them to build a roadmap of the world they're operating in. You take that geography to systematically destroy the world they're thriving in. You isolate your target, Crooked Cross right? And then you end them. Besides, you may find new problems along the way. I doubt they're the only players when it comes to dishing out misery." Hanna, FLorz, and the attended all stared at her, a little dumbfounded. Florz glanced at Hanna, raising an eyebrow. She, however, kept studying the journal/ Despite his better judgment, he rolled his shoulder to drop the gun off his back, then took it by the end of it's elongated barrel and and handed it to Cynisca. "Unfortunately, Crooked Cross isn't so lazy as to just leave a road-map of their dealing just laying around for us." He huffed as Cyn reclaimed her gun. "Luckily for us: these guys ain't that bright." Hanna's eyes flicked up from the ledger, and FLorz made a circular motion with his finger. "Turn to the twenty-seventh page." Hanna did so, tracing her finger down the page. She stopped almost two thirds of the way down, seeing other than money recorded under the income section. Six, BL..." She read aloud. "From... THe Lion..." "We think that stands for Bomb Lacrima." Florz explained. "Read ahead, there're a handful of other logs like that. Check out some of the names he gave the guy too." Hanna flipped to the next page, skimming through the lines. "Four BL, from eye-patch... Twelve BL, from the Lion... Five BL, from East Point-." She stopped abruptly, her eyes widening as she read that last one again. "East Point?" She looked up at him, the corners of her lips curling into a large smile. "Oh my god, FLroz, this is-." "Yeah." He nodded at her, mirroring her elated expression. "Told ya, these guys aren't that smart." Cynisca crooned as soon as her bazooka was back in hand, rubbing it affectionately before strapping the oversized weapon to her back. Fortunately, she was tall enough for it not to drag along the ground. "So what? They're only human. At some point they'll become sloppy. Plus, I never said they'd leave a roadmap; you'd have to create that roadmap from what you find and what they forget to cover up." She paused. "What's in East Point? Anything interesting besides their stupidity?" Hanna quickly glanced over her shoulder at her, the elation clear on her face. "Crooked cross is known for having a lot of followers, but the guild itself only has a handful of actual members." She glanced back at the ledger, looking over the next few pages while she spoke. "And they all use code names when they talk to eachother, to keep their identity's hidden. The master is referred to as the center point, while the top four members each take a name from each of the four directions. The North point, the West point... You get the idea." She glanced at her partner, who had since dismissed the other investigator. "This could be really big FLorz, did he ever use his actual name?" "No." FLorz shook his head. "The guy wasn't that dumb." Hanna huffed, but hadn't really expect it to have been that easy. "Well, we still have these..." Hse said, tracing her finger back through the book to the other names he'd listed. "East Point, Eyepatch, and... Lion..." "So we have an alias. How well known are the group's aliases? Cause having someone pretend to be East Point is a possibility. A proxy if you will," Cyn added, though she couldn't help but find this new development interesting. Possibly more interesting than the Ladies of the Lake. At the very list, she wanted to see how crime operated in a different part of the world. Did they have their own methods? Were the pursuits the same? She always loved a good story. "Does it give a place for the transaction?" Looking at the book again, Hanna shook her head. "It doesn't. apparently he'd show up at random. And we've tried infiltrating them in the past, but we don't even know where their home base is." She flipped back the the page where she'd found the first listing, humming to herself while she thought. "The Lion... Got to be an alias, right?" "Bad guys do love giving themselves nicknames, don't they?" Florz chuckled. "Luckily for us, we started keeping a database so every prick with a nickname in the country. So if anyone stands out." He paused a moment, snapping his fingers. "We got'em." "Sir?" The attention returned, handing a a small pipe of papers to Florz. "We just finished the search." Flashing Hanna a large grin, Florz asked. "And? What'd you find?" Abruptly, the attendant took a slight step backwards. "Uh... Nothing, sir." Florz did a double take, but the attendant continued to explain. "Which is why we winded our initial search in include registered mages, military, and government personnel. And... only one person stood out..." Florz quickly opened the file, and Hanna rushed to look over his shoulder, but they both furrowed their brows when they saw. "Gregor Nemian?" Hanna muttered. "The war hero?" "You moron..." Florz growled at the attendant. "This guy's a veteran, and he's retired. Why the hell would he be transporting Bomb Lacrima around for Crooked Cross?" "Alright, alright, hold on." Hanna soothed, yanking the file from her partners hands. "It says he was once known as the White Lion, back in the day... And that he lost his eye in battle... So he'd probably wore an eye patch, right?" Cynisca was confused. "Gregor Nemian? Who is he? I'm sorry, but I'm a bit lost here; I'm not familiar with the happenings of this country," she admitted, hoping for some elaboration. However, her interest was piqued upon hearing the two nicknames posted side by side. "The Lion and the White Lion? Is that a coincidence or an omen?" she asked noting Florz's outburst and vehement defense of this "Gregor". "I mean, one of my uncles told me this once. 'You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain'. I have no idea if this applies to the guy you're talking about, but you have to consider it at least." Florz quickly glanced up at Cyn, who was awaiting an answer, then looked at Hanna. She' however, continued to study the file, so he took it upon himself to explain. "He is... Or, was... A field commander, a fairly decent one too." He cupped his chin to think, having nothing but what the history books had sad to go on. "Maybe...Two decades ago, He and his battalion where sent to defend a fortress that blocked the only passage between two countries. The legend says that over the course of a week, he and his forces repelled three different army's trying to invade." He thought a moment longer, but the details eluded him; as did any motivation for why he'd be involved with a dark guild. "People say... that was why the invasion failed, because the forces that made it through other encampments couldn't regroup or call for reinforcements, so they had to retreat." He said with a shrug. "After that, he spent a few years training recrutes, then went on to retire at the age of forty." "Lucky him." Hanna muttered, turning the file over to read a new page. "So what you're saying is...he's a stud. Well, he was one on the battlefield at least," Cyn commented. She couldn't help but be reminded of another story featuring a vastly outmanned battalion repulsing an army at a narrow pass. It was the ideal place to set up defenses if you were at a numbers disadvantage. She pats Hanna on the back. "Don't worry, some day you'll retire too. So, does anyone know what he's up to now? Or did he just ride off into the sunset?" "N-no, we..." She stopped, suddenly filled with doubt as to how easy this sounded. "We have his address. He's lived on Emeralace for the past five years..." She huffed, flipping the file closed and handing it back to the attendant. "You're right, this is nothing. Let's just stay focused on cleaning up here." As she began to walk away, Florz caught her by the shoulder. "Hold up, that's it?" She half spun around to look at him, catching Florz off guard. "I mean... What if it is something?" With a huff, Hanna rested her hands on her hips. "Ok, so how do you want to handle it?" Taking a moment to think, Florz shrugged and put on a small grin. "We could try just talking to him." His grin widened as Haana stared at him in disbelief. "I mean, it's an option, right?" "Yeah, sure it is. We'll just walk up to him and ask if he's a member of Crooked Cross and he'll say: you've got me officer, i surrender." Hanna huffed sarcastically. "Yeah, that's how that'll go, Florz." Florz huffed, his grin shrinking away. But at the same time, Hanna realized how mean that comment was, and dropped her shoulders. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for..." Likewise, FLorz nodded his head and crossed his arms, agreeing that he hadn't really thought that idea through. "What if..." He paused, his eyes drifting to Cyn while a new idea formed in his head. "What if someone else went instead? someone who isn't a council mage... Like our new friend here?" Cyn spaced out a bit as the group seemingly dispersed, wrapped up in her own thoughts. Hopefully they hadn't moved from where they were earlier; she still had the goal of seeing the Lady of Lake people. Hopefully one of them would appear; she just wanted to talk after all. Nothing more, nothing less. However, she would tune back in after sensing the conversation drift back to her. "Hmm? Sorry, I went into my own little world there. What were you saying?" She then caught the knowing, contemplative look. "No. Nononono. Don't even think about involving me in your politicking. I'm just passing through." She saw a wicked gleam in their eyes, the woman backing up. "I SAID NO." "Yeah... I'm with her on this one." Hanna huffed, crossing her arms disapprovingly. "These people blow up transport ships, set monsters loose on towns, hand out bombs to a random batch of bandits..." She said, gesturing out the window. "What do you think they'll do if we out one of them in public?" "So one of us goes with her, then." Florz shrugged. Hanna continued to glare at him, and he eventually let out a long sigh. "Look, I ain't happy about this either, but this is like... The only lead I can remember ever having on these guys? What's going to happen when we tell the chairman that we didn't follow up?" Hanna's eyebrow twitched, but Florz continued regardless. "Zephyr will ask why we didn't follow up, you'll say it was a gut instinct, then he'll ask how much that's worth in a trial. Then he'll have some super logical way of telling us off that'll make us both sound like idiots." Hanna just stood there, her mouth half open like she wanted to make an argument. but had frozen mid thought. "Uggghhh... I can't believe i'm considering this..." She groaned, running a hand through her long, black hair. She eventual took a step towards Cyn, resting her hands on her hips. "Is there any way i can convince you to do this?" She said, failing to hide the disdain in her voice. "Please?" Cyn continued to back up, keeping the exit in her peripheral vision. "Um....no? I'll say it again. I just came here to vacation and travel. Not to play hero; you want to know how many times I've been dragged into some 'good deed for the day turned weeks' shit? I bet you don't. Besides, with all the noise you and your operation is making, not to mention arresting me, I haven't been able to the see the Ladies of the Lake. It was a haul getting out here to find them, cause they don't like noisy or crowded places. Hence a spot like this far from any city or town." Cyn sighed. "Why do you need me anyway? Can you just find some trustworthy citizen on the street? I'm sure they're dying to help you out, cause you'll probably give them a good payday," She added, folding her arms. Noticeably deflated, Hanna crossed her arms under her chest to hold her elbows. "Because..." She paused a moment, during which FLorz silently ducked away from the conversation. "That could take weeks." Hanna continued, not noticing her partner's abrupt departure. "We can't just draft people into work. If we need help, we offer jobs to Mage guilds like everyone else." "And by that time your lead would be dry as overcooked chicken and as cold as the tundra," Cynisca responded. She raised an eyebrow at Florz's departure, but didn't comment on it. "If you can't just draft people into work, why do that with me? Do I look like a mercenary to you? Don't answer that." Cyn remembered the bazooka tied to her back, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. "Look, you don't even know long this whole thing would take. I sign up to do this then you and your cohort impress me into other things, cause I don't have a legal guild backing me. As far as you comrades are concerned, I'm just some out-of-country smuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. While you and your partner seem like good people, the rest of buddies would probably see me as something to be exploited." "No, no..." Hanna shook her head, trying to clear up a miscommunication. "I'm not trying to draft you. It's just a job offer, and only if you're inte-." Hanna stopped short, realizing that she had already gotten an answer. Letting out a slow huff, she leaned back against the console behind her in defeat. "But, you're right. It's our job, not yours. You're free to go..." Just as Hanna turned around, Florz returned with a new, smaller file in his hand, this one looking rattier than the other. "You mentioned something about the... Lady's of the Lake earlier, didn't ya?" He looked up, not waiting for an answer. "Was that on this island?" "Well, see ya around then. Or not." Cyn waved, about to head for the exit. However, she would pause upon hearing Florz's voice again. "Yes, I said Ladies of the Lake," she commented before snorting, "Why else would I be here? I wanted to talk with them and see what they were about. Maybe gain some cool stories or even better, some cool items." Cynisca eyed the file. "So what's your point?" "My point is... there's no lake on this island." FLorz shrugged. "There is. however, a large unlit near the coast. And... A local roomer about-." "Mermaids...?" Hanna interrupted, dropping her shoulders while shooting Her partner a disapproving glare. She stepped closer to look at the file herself, and furrowed her brow when she realized she was right. "Florz, that's an old sailor's tail. It doesn't have anything to do with this." "Roomers of things going missing over the years-." Florz began reading off the file. "Mermaid sightings, reports of treasures mysteriously vanishing. Or people sometimes being rescued at sea, only to find all of their belongings to go missing... Reports that date back for years. Decades, even." He trailed off, looking up at Cyn once more. "Sound like something you'd want to look into?" "FLorz..." Hanna grumbled, crossing her arms disapprovingly. "There's no lake on the island my ass. I saw them for a hot second before they dipped," Cyn retorted before her eyes began shining. "Lost treasure? Missing belongings? Mermaids? Sounds like a fellow collector." Her grin broadens with each passing second. "An old sailor's tale? You'll surprised how many old wives' and sailors' tales are true." She stretches. "Count me in. I'm always down for hunting down a good story. How else do you think I gained cool items?" "N-no, no... This isn't..." Hanna stuttered, taking half a step foreword to stand between her and Florz. "You said you where here on vacation, didn't you?" "You help us out with Crooked Cross, and i'll hand over everything we knww about the mermaid legend here." Florz continued, snapping the file closed. "I'll hand over everything I know , but only if you help us look into Gregor first. You can even keep whatever you find." Resting her hands on her hips, Hanna turned to Florz with a huff. "Don't make me order you to drop this." "Everything you know? It better be a lot. Cause I'm not about to waste my time on snippets," Cyn fired back with a smirk, "I am here on vacation. Finding cool stuff and stories is one of the ways I vacation. Think of me as a traveler who bounces from place to place, looking for something that piques my interest. A mermaid is definitely one such thing. If you think mermaids don't exist, you won't believe half the things I've seen." She laughs a bit. "So, where is this Gregor? I hope you don't expect me to go in this massive warship. Not really friendly looking you know?" Florz gained a glare grin, tucking the file under his arm. "We'll still be clearing things out here for at least a few days, but after that, we'll arrange a ship to take you to Emeralace. From there you'll have to walk." Scratching his chin for a moment, trying to think of any detail that might be worth mentioning. Coming up short, however, he figured that was enough for today. "Till then, I suppose you could hang out on the ship's crew quarters, that's probably the most comfortable place to sleep." "Emeralace.....I'm going to pretend I know where that is ok?" Cyn responded cheekily. She balanced a leg on the wall, stretching a bit. "So I'll be sleeping among a bunch of stuffy Rune Knights? No thanks. I'll be out sleeping among the trees where I can actually see the sky. It's nothing personal; I've just been away from 'civilized' society for too long." "So....how about we figure out something to eat eh? I don't know about you, but I could use a nice big meal right about now." "We'll send someone for ya when we open up the galley." Florz nodded, gesturing to the door. "Till then, we'll try to stay out of your way." Nodding again, Cyn made her exit, and FLorz following shortly after. Standing along now, among the hustle an bustle of the command room, Hanna quietly mumbled. "What the hell just happened?" ---- A few minutes later, Florz found himself in one of the evidence rooms, aiding in the organisation of everything they'd seized from the hideout. It was, a slow, tedious job, but it was a somewhat welcome relief to listening to the complaints of the people they;d arrested, or dealing with that Cyn character. In a few hours, another ship would be arriving to cart the convicts away, and Cyn seemed to want to steer clear of them. But for the moment, it was a nice reprieve. That is, until he heard a small knock at the door and a particularly irritated grumble. "Can you give us the room?" All movement ceased for a moment, before the two other attendants hurried to the door. Florz slowly turned around, unsurprisingly finding Hanna standing in the doorway with her arms crossed disapprovingly. "We need to talk." SHe said shortly. Setting down the pile of papers he was working with, Florz obliged. "Sure boss." He said, knowing this wasn't likely to be a fun conversation. "What's up?" "What's up?" She barked. "We're in the middle an investigation, and you commissioned that girl to go on a wild goose chase for us?" She paused a moment, catching her tone and looking back to see that nobody else was watching them. "She's here on vacation, Florz. And we almost threw her in jail." "And she seems to have forgiven us." Florz shrugged, resting his arm on the desk he was sitting at. "You explained what happened, and she understands... I think. So all's well that ends well." "Except now she's here... Working for us... On her vacation..." Hanna spelled out, putting more emphases on each point. "Why is it so important that we follow through with this, anyway. You said it yourself, it's probably a dead end. So what the hell changed?" FLorz opened his mouth, but caught himself before saying anything. Slowly, is gaze drifted to the floor, and he began massaging the back of his head. "Because..." He trailed off, prompting the still fuming Hanna to take an aggressive step foreword. "Because what?" Thinking on it a moment longer, Florz let out a long sigh, sinking back in his chair. "If we follow this lead, and it turns out to be nothing, you get to say I told you so. Happens all the time. But if we sluff it off, just assume it's nothing, the next time Crooked Cross does something, you'll think to yourself, what if. What if we'd followed up? What if we'd dug a little deeper, what if we'd stopped this before it started..." He trailed off and slowly crossed his arms defensibly, not sure how Hanna would take this. "And knowing you, you'll let it eat at you." Surprisingly for FLorz, Hanna dropped her aggressive stance. "N-no I won't..." She said, sagging her shoulders at the thought. "We're a reactionary force. The punishment comes after the crime." "Half the guys we arrested tonight havn't done anything wrong, yet." Florz counted with a shrug. "Who the hell knows what all those bomb lacrima where for though." Hanna fell silent, She was a straightforward person, and arguing wasn;t one of her strong points. Something Florz had learned long ago. "The motormouth with the cannon looked like she had an eye for valuables, so looking into the theft reports around here is a win for her too. So don;t fret over it too much." This came as a little comfort, but knowing when she'd been beaten, Hanna dropped into one of the nearby chairs with a soft grumble. "You know... Having a profiler for a partner can really suck sometimes..." A small smile grew on her face though, remembering all the times his skills at reading people had come in handy. "You don't use that on me when we go out, do you?" "Don't have to." FLorz shrugged, turning around before she could see the grin creeping across his face. "You ware your heart on your sleeve." Her eyebrow twitched, and her smile grew a little bit more strained. "You know, a good boyfriend would've said: no, of course not, Hanna. I like a woman with an air of mystery to her." "A good boyfriend wouldn't lie to his girlfriend." Flors Shot back. A warm feeling filled Hanna's chest. "Fine, fine, you win." She got up and brushed hrself off, waving through the dust of the ship's archive room while making he way to the door. "I'll take point on the Gregor investigation then, you can sit back and call us if anything happens." FLorz nodded, giving her a quick thumbs up before returning ot what he was doing. "And FLorz...?" He perked up form what he was doing one last time, spying Hanna flash him a devilish smile. "If i find out you tried to profile me, I'll have you on desk-work for the rest of your life." "Yes ma'am." ---- She sat down underneath a tree, finally. Truth be told, she hated every second of being inside that ship, and in that jail cell. How did humans live like that? It was super claustrophobic and icky. The feeling of a warm bark against her back and a lazy wind rustling the treetops set her at ease. It helped her ignore the loud operations of the Rune Knights. "Seriously, they need to learn subtlety." Cynisca avoided looking at the ship above. Cyn wondered why she had agreed to this. Sure, there might be some good spoils, but they weren't even guaranteed. Besides, this "mermaid" was the kind to take stuff, not give it away. She was still certain the ladies of the lake existed; not that she would discuss it with them again. The woman found it funny how humans could have such sharp imaginations, but not believe those things actually existed. Maybe she should ask them for a salary; since she was working for them she ought to be paid in more than hearsay. "Well, I'll bring it up with them later." she nestled in again, bazooka across her lap as she dozed off a bit. Next Chapter - A Veteran's Tail Category:Roleplay Category:RP Category:Chapter Category:Chapters Category:Storyline